Lost Worlds Project: Unveiling The Hidden World

Something that is not really coming across in this “Lost Worlds Project” video is how complex it is to figure out how to keep making progress. This isn’t a normal abandoned mine where you just follow the adit and then go down a couple of crosscuts or whatever. This mine is like a 4D labyrinth. And it isn’t just one mine – there are multiple intersecting mines here. And with different passages blocked by caved areas, we must shift back and forth between the different mines as we continue our descent. This means that the normal logic that one can follow in exploring an abandoned mine is out the window. Sometimes, we must go UP to go DOWN. For example, we may have to go up to the sublevel of another mine in order to drop to the next level down of the mine that we had just been in. It’s crazy and confusing and it takes a lot of trial and error (and rope) to be able to locate the next piece of the puzzle that allows us to go lower. I’ll talk about it more in the upcoming “Lost Worlds Project” videos, but this is unquestionably the most complex route that we’ve ever had to follow to gain access to mine workings – and it does not become any less complex the deeper we go! I can’t wait for you guys to see what is on the next couple of levels down…

I really wish that you could have seen what was involved with that drop down at the beginning of the video into the level shown in this chapter of the series, but there is just no opportunity for filming in this section… After sliding down to the top of the rotten ladder and worming through the tiny space to get into the vertical drop, there is about forty feet of squeezing along the side of the rotten ladder (without putting any weight on it) before it drops away completely and you’re just weaving through rocks to end up at that chamber where I started filming. This part of the mine isn’t necessarily wet, but it is damp enough that all the wooden infrastructure is completely rotted and unreliable.

We were the first people on these levels of the mine since the crew in the mid-1930s. The crew here then was not mining, but were doing testing, sampling and core drilling. I don’t know if they used the ore cars and wheelbarrows then. So, they may be even older than that period and date back to when actual mining was still taking place on that level.

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You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L

You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: https://bit.ly/2wqcBDD and here: https://bit.ly/2p6Jip6

Several kind viewers have asked about donating to help cover some of the many expenses associated with exploring these abandoned mines. Inspired by their generosity, I set up a Patreon account. So, if anyone would care to chip in, I’m under TVR Exploring on Patreon.

Thanks for watching!

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Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them – nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.

These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever.
I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!

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